gorilla
nounEtymology
From Ancient Greek Γόριλλαι (Górillai, “Gorillai (a tribe of hairy women)”), described by Hanno the Navigator, a Carthaginian navigator and possible visitor to the area that later became Sierra Leone; the Greek word is likely from Punic, and ultimately from an African language.
- derived from Γόριλλαι
Definitions
An ape of the genus Gorilla
An ape of the genus Gorilla; endemic to the forests of Central Africa and typified by superlative physical size and strength in relation to other primates.
- “They are wicked people—neither white like you nor black like me, but covered with hair as is Bolgani, the gorilla. Yes, they are very bad people indeed, and Chowambi was glad to get out of their country.”
A big and brutish man or a thug
A big and brutish man or a thug; a goon or ruffian.
- "I'll do the old gorilla the justice to say that he is open-handed with money."
- "Don't fool yourself," I said. "I could have slugged this pair of amateur gorillas any hour of the day or night. I've not done it because you've got nothing against them other than their being a pair of dim-witted nuisances."
- I remember being crushed by gorillas on the rugby field[.]
A powerful person or organization
A powerful person or organization; a heavyweight or behemoth.
- The two industry gorillas — IBM and AT&T — will get together to decide who will provide different communications services, Biddle stated.
›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer
1000 pounds sterling or dollar.
The neighborhood
Derived
800-pound gorilla, 800-pound gorilla in the room, buffarilla, Chicagorilla, eastern gorilla, golira, gorillagram, gorilla in the room, gorillalike, gorilla pimp, gorilla press, gorilla salad, Gorilla Sign Language, gorilla suit, gorilless, gorillian, gorillion, gorilloid, mountain gorilla, sherilla, weregorilla, western gorilla
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at gorilla. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at gorilla. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
7 hops · closes at gorilla
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA